Thunderstorms brought chaos to the North-East early this morning as houses were struck by lightning and the East Coast mainline brought to a standstill.
Lightning hit train tracks just north of Darlington, at about 5am, bringing GNER, Arriva and Virgin services to a halt. A spokeswoman for Network Rail said signals had been blacked out due to the storm but services were up and running again by 7.30am.
Two homes in the Teesside area were struck by lightning, one in Redmarshall, near Stockton, causing damage to the roof, and another in the Owton Manor area of Hartlepool.
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